الجهاد الثالث The Third Jihad

Jihad: جهاد : An Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning “struggle.” Jihad appears frequently in the Qur’an and common usage as the idiomatic expression “striving in the way of Allah(al-jihad fi sabil Allah)“.[1][2] A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid, the plural is mujahideen.

The premise of this video is that the US populace and the media who feed them information, have missed the boat on the real nature of the danger we face. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser presents this look at what I consider a peek under the veil, so to speak, on the radical Islamic movements within and without the United States. Much of what is said though, should be nothing new to anyone who has been paying attention to radical thought within those Islamic movements.

The film starts out with the history of the “Jihad” being really taken up during the run up to the Crusades. Which, really, the Caliphate was their idea and then the Christians got all up in their faces over crucial sites within the Med. Frankly, I think that this does really play a part, but, there needs to be more perspective through history to this than the black and white picture painted by the film.. It lacks nuance and historical backing. I am sure there are more reasons.. But, on the side of the film, just how much “reason” do these Wahabists have? Perhaps history truly is written by the victors? But the reality is it is read and interpreted by the end user and often is bent to their desire.

I agree though, that the seekers of the universal caliphate have certainly taken the bits and pieces that they have from the Quran and interpreted it in the way they see fit as a means to an end. This can be said though about any religion such as right wing Christians who have ideals of “Christian Soldiers” and the world should be universally Christian no? It’s just that not many of them have “yet” begun to strap on plastique waist belts and flip the switch in a crowded Walmart… Just yet. We have come close with all the abortion doctor killings though.

What may be new though, and as you have seen recently in the news with the spate of “Suicide Bomb” plans for the likes of NYC’s MTA system, is that there is a home grown Jihadist movement being birthed here on our own soil. No more are these guys just Saudi’s who have come to the country on visa’s but instead potentially naturalized or US born citizens of the United States. How is this happening? By the use of Wahabist and Sharia teachings in mosques inside and out of the US and a healthy dose of crazy I am sure.

This film strikes me as somewhat right leaning and of course features FOX news in more than a few clips. However, the film really does pose a question as to just how much is radical Islam growing not only in the US and Middle East, but also globally. With over a billion adherents to Islam, I suspect that there is a high likelihood of more Wahabists and Sharia followers being created on a daily basis. It in fact has a spate of people like Rudy Giulliani who says that classic line “They just hate our way of life” well, I could say that about certain Christian sects referring to homosexuals. So really, can we have a little more nuance here?

Overall, I think that perhaps within every religion, there lies the seed for this type of “true believer” mentality. It’s just that Islam’s radicals have reached the point where they use suicide bombs for their ends against the unbelievers (Infidel) on a more common basis. It would seem then that there will always be some whacknut out there with an agenda and an ax to grind. It just happens that in this case that there are pockets of these “true believers” with the petrodollars to spend and youth to ingrain with hatred. This idea is backed up toward the end of the film where they show videos that have been showing up lately on the internet of youths acting out a beheading as well as one actually carrying out a real one.

The sum of all of this needs to be put out there by the media and the people have to come to grips with it and that is this; The genie is out of the bottle. Now that Qaeda have shown the way, the door is open for every nutbag with an idea to do the same or even try to top them. We have to buckle down and get used to it as well as take it seriously and make serious efforts in protecting our country from the likes of Al Qaeda and their clones. It’s now just a fact of life.

This of course means that we CANNOT give up on Iraq and pull out. It certainly means that we have to increase troops AND train and inculcate the police forces and military’s of Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan with a lot of oversight. This whole bring the troops home thing is just going to get us into more trouble. I am sorry people, we broke it, we bought it. All of the years previous to 9/11 we had chances to learn and to adapt as well as attempt to affect change in the Middle East and we failed to either recognize the opportunities or just chose to ignore them.

Moving forward we have to have a better understanding of the region, its people, and their customs as well as a deeper knowledge of their history. It seems that within the 8 years of Bush & Co. understanding the region was not really required reading. Now the new president seems to have a lot of catching up to do to understand the problems, history, and people to navigate a way forward. What has me worried thus far is that generally it seems the people here have fallen back to slumbering, all the while the wound still festers and grows gangrenous.